Six priests detained in Armenia as investigation into church figures widens

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By Lucy Papachristou

TBILISI (Reuters) -Six Armenian clergymen were detained on Wednesday, their lawyer said, amid a widening crackdown that has seen some religious figures accused of plotting coups in the South Caucasus country.

Five priests belonging to the Aragatsotn diocese of the Apostolic Church in western Armenia as well as its most senior figure, Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan, were brought into custody following searches of their homes, lawyer Ara Zograbyan wrote on Facebook. A number of civilians were also arrested, he said.

Armenian authorities have not yet published statements on the detentions. The Investigative Committee, the judiciary’s main investigative arm, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The arrests of the six come after another pastor at a church in the same region gave an interview last month on public television alleging that the Apostolic Church had forced its members to participate in anti-government rallies in 2021 against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

An Armenian non-profit group, the Union of Informed Citizens, subsequently filed a request to state prosecutors to investigate the claim by the pastor, Father Ter Aram.

A senior council of the Apostolic Church condemned Wednesday’s arrests as showcasing the government’s “systemic pressure on the Armenian Church”, according to a statement cited by Armenian media.

The confrontation between the government and the Church comes as Pashinyan faces parliamentary elections next June and is under domestic pressure to conclude a peace agreement with Azerbaijan to end decades of conflict between the South Caucasus neighbours.

The crackdown on the clergy began this summer with the arrests of several prominent clerics on charges of attempts to incite violent coups.

One of them, Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan, was sentenced to two years in prison earlier this month following what the Apostolic Church called a politically-motivated trial.

Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, another jailed cleric who is awaiting trial, led street protests against Pashinyan last year over what he cast as territorial concessions made to Azerbaijan following wars in 2020 and 2023.

Some senior clerics have previously called for Pashinyan to step down over Armenia’s military defeats against Azerbaijan.

(Reporting by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Aidan Lewis)